Which mold for .30 Carbine?

[leadman]

The Lee 113gr feeds in 2 of my carbines but not the other. The Lee 120gr is very accurate in my carbines with GCs. For low cost GCs see 338RemUltramag in the vendor list. his aluminum checks work great and save alot of cash.

[ShooterAZ]

That's to bad, I like a flat nose for effect on game - guess the 120 grn RN is the only option then.

About the biggest game I will hunt with the M1 Carbine is Jack Rabbits and maybe a Coyote. I doubt if they would notice the difference. I just ordered the Forster 1/8" HP tool, and the LEE C309-120R is on the list to try out among others. Iv'e read mixed results on it, but I'm going to give it a try.

[dancingbear41]

I have two .30 Carbines. One a lever action and one a bolt. Things are a little different in the UK. Therefore I do not have to worry about pressure to operate a semi-auto. That said, I love this little round and mine live solely on a diet of cast bullets. I have found that pretty much all cast bullets will shoot well. I size to .310".

My moulds?

My standard is a five cavity Saeco #254 RN. The bevel base was removed when I bought it (eBay), professionally I might add, and it is a cracking mould.

H&G #250 GC RN 4 cavity.

Lyman 311459 2 cavity, an excellent bullet.

Lyman 311410 2 cavity.

Lee 113FN single cavity.

NEI 110 RN 4 cavity. A funny little round nose which looks all wrong when loaded, it's too stubby, but shoots a treat. A genuine Walt Melander mould.

Recently......

My first (and definitely not last) Accurate mould 115 grain FN 3 cavity brass mould. Amazingly accurate and casts beautifully.

And finally.....

MP mould 311410 4 cavity GC HP. An astounding mould. It casts superbly and is as accurate as it is good looking.

I think that is all. Making my own gas checks now so a new lease of life for some of the moulds I had stopped using. It's a fun little round.

Simon.

[Old School Big Bore]

Simon, what make is your .30 Carbine bolt gun? I'm intrigued...
I use the 311410 in my Blackhawk but after shooting some much-hyped LaserCast 110s in my hot-rodded Underwood and having to unsolder the tappet, I'm leery of running any more CBs through it til I get a suitable GC mold for it, and score some linotype and some kryptonite GCs and get some super lube from NASA or wherever...
I have worked up some J-word loads for it that have worked GREAT on the small TX Hill Country deer. I think if someone could make about a 125-140 gr Keith, the Blackhawk would be a viable CB deer gun.

[bstone5]

Has anyone shot a powder coated bullet with a cola can gas check in the M1 Carbine?

[dancingbear41]

Old School Big Bore,

My rifle is made by Armalon, www.armalon.com. It is based on an Enfield No.4 action. It has a 20" fluted barrel, cock on opening bolt and match trigger conversion. It takes standard M1 or M2 magazines. I had two Armalon carbines one in .45 ACP and their one and only .41 Magnum. It took me three years to persuade them they wanted to build one in .30 Carbine. They did and it is now one of their standard line up. Their guns are not cheap but their build quality and subtle little design features are excellent.



Simon.

[Echd]

That's a cool gun, dancingbear. I wish we could get some of those new Enfields in the US, but bizarre import laws and restrictions keep them away. There were plans several years ago for an australian company to bring some in but the ATF canned it because of some parts made in Vietnam... or something to that effect. Really dumb, regardless.

Has anyone shot a powder coated bullet with a cola can gas check in the M1 Carbine?

I have shot GC'd PC'd bullets through mine with good reliability and ok accuracy. Can't say I've ever benched my M1 for real or anything, as long as it'll pop milk jugs and tin cans. I don't think it's phenomenally accurate, but it really is a gun I just like to blast with rather than do real target work.

[Artful]

Echd have you tuned your M1 Carbine?

I had a fellow come to a military match I set up - as long as it was an issue weapon you could use it - no modifications allowed.

He showed up with an M1 Carbine that he had tuned for his ammo - out Shot experienced High Power Shooter's with '03's, M1's, and M1A's.
We only had 200 yards total so never had problem with trajectory. Jeff took home the trophy and the money - and made a lot of sour faced rifle shooters with his little M1 Carbine.

[Artful]

dancingbear41 , Nice gun - if you ever take it down (out of the wood) I'd love to see some pictures of the action on your rifle.

Their 223 rifles look good too.

[Echd]

Echd have you tuned your M1 Carbine?

I had a fellow come to a military match I set up - as long as it was an issue weapon you could use it - no modifications allowed.

He showed up with an M1 Carbine that he had tuned for his ammo - out Shot experienced High Power Shooter's with '03's, M1's, and M1A's.
We only had 200 yards total so never had problem with trajectory. Jeff took home the trophy and the money - and made a lot of sour faced rifle shooters with his little M1 Carbine.

My M1 Carbine is a postwar commercial model built on GI parts. I've replaced a few bits here and there with GI parts (had to get a new handguard and replace the piston), but I paid exactly $80 for it about 5 years ago, so I never expected too much out of it.

If they are capable of besting 03s and the like, I'd be surprised, but I'm not saying that they couldn't. They're tremendously fun little guns, but I'd be willing to bet the guy was just a phenomenal shooter.

If anything, at 200 yards I'd think the lack of really high quality jacketed bullets optimized to that size cartridge would be more of a hindrance than anything else. On second thought maybe the 125s shoot well in M1s, but I have no idea. I've only ever used cast, plated RNs, and halfjackets in mine.

I honestly don't know what could or would be done to "tune" one. Mine runs reliably with cast, which took a fair amount of fiddling with both internally and with load development, but I can't imagine what sort of accurizing work would take place.

[Artful]

Tuning NOT Accurizing - and it's done with just the front sling swivel tension adjustment to optimize the harmonic's of the barrel to the load.

Surprisingly effective.

found this link
http://www.scribd.com/doc/27034567/A...the-M1-Carbine

[Echo]

Are you using them with gas checks?

Indeed I am. I don't like the idea of using a GC boolit sans GC. Irrational, I know, but there we are...

[Old School Big Bore]

Wow, thanks, Dancing Bear. Wonder if they can sell the conversion parts and not the rifle...since we can't import them...hmmm...
The issue that caused the Carbine to get tagged as inaccurate is the shrink-fitted gas block. Putting a tight patch down the barrel, if your gas block is pinching the bore, you'll feel the tight place. A lot of them have this, and once the bullet is swaged down going through there it's looser in the remainder of the bore. All this problem needs is carefully lapping the bore and voila le good groups. Mine shoots GREAT and has surprised a lot of reduced-course highpower shooters.

[cpaspr]

Update. And questions.

I finally got some 309-120-R bullets cast up last weekend. Or was it two ago? I forget. Anyway, I just loaded three up for fit, varying COLs. Max COL is 1.680". At 1.673", the top lube groove is fully exposed, and the bullet is being jammed into the lands upon loading into the chamber. At 1.658", the middle drive band is completely covered, and the shell mouth is near the bottom of the top lube groove. Still jamming into the lands, by .050". Seating the bullet to 1.611", the mouth of the shell completely covers the top lube groove and just clears the bottom of the top driving band. No land marks after loading into the chamber. What has me concerned about this is that it appears to be compressing the load (12.0g of 2400). Hold on, I'll check the math.

The loose powder is .337" from the case mouth. The primed, sized shell is 1.288" long. The bullet is .693" long. At 1.611" COL, there is .370" of the bullet outside the case, so there is .323" inside the case. Which means there is .014" between the top of the powder and the bottom of the GC. So, not compressed. That surprised me; I thought sure it was compressing the load.

Anyway, logic appears to tell me I should load these to 1.611" COL, to cover that top lube groove. But does that cause too much pressure?

Help from the deep pool of collected wisdom here is requested. I won't shoot anything nor load any more till I hear back from y'all.

[leadman]

You want to make sure that the boolit does not jam into the lands so it will not fire out of battery. This boolit is very accurate in my carbines.

The Sierra 110gr HP is an amazingly accurate bullet out of one of my carbines. Will shoot moa or less at 100 yards. Carbine is scoped.

Good luck on your testing.

[cpaspr]

leadman - what OAL do you load the 309-120-R to? And everyone else?

[Forrest r]

The cramer #50 is an excellent bullet design/mold for the carbine. Have a mold that casts 125gr spir points and 115gr hp's.

[IMG][/IMG]

forrest r

[WILCO]

Help from the deep pool of collected wisdom here is requested.

How do you know you're up against the rifling and not having a headspace issue?
What are you sizing the bullet to?

[cpaspr]

How do you know you're up against the rifling and not having a headspace issue?
What are you sizing the bullet to?

The bullets were sized to .308" (the only sizing die I have). I can see the marks left in the bullets by the lands on the longer COL rounds. I'm not sure what you mean by "having a headspace issue".

[WILCO]

The bullets were sized to .308" (the only sizing die I have). I can see the marks left in the bullets by the lands on
the longer COL rounds. I'm not sure what you mean by "having a headspace issue".

Cpaspr,

The .30 M1 cartridge is straight walled and it headspaces on the mouth.
If your cartridge is below the minimal trim length, you'll have headspace trouble.
Also, crimping can give you headspacing issues too.
I don't have any load data specifically for the LEE 309-120-R and OAL measurement.
That being said, I have data for the Lyman #311576 at 123gr. which is a similar bullet profile as the LEE.
Its OAL is listed as 1.610", so I think you'll be fine with your stated measurement of 1.611".
I've loaded a few .30 M1 cartridges using Hornady 110 gr. round nose FMJ's at the max. OAL of 1.680" without any issues and my original thought was that maybe your bullet nose had dropped from the mold being to large of diameter to chamber properly. After looking in a couple of different manuals, I realized it's an issue of bullet profile when compared to the other lead bullets.
Just for the record, I have used a minimal crimp when loading the FMJ's without any issues also.